sickle_stories

Note: This was keysmashed out with seschat via messages sent out in the wee hours. I’ve just compiled and cleaned it up a bit. As for who wrote what, who cares, we share a brain anyway <3

The Manifesto:

This is why Sherlock and Mycroft’s relationship seems like (one of) the most interesting and complex to me. First, we don’t know their history, only that there are “old resentments” but it leaves so much room to play with and that’s wonderful. And second, it is endlessly amusing how they constantly regress to seven year olds in each other’s company. It’s so true because my brother gives me rage blackouts without even trying and I hate how he can make me start yelling at him and make me look like an absolute fool which, you know, maybe that’s why Mycroft and Sherlock don’t like to hang out either because they know so much about the other. Though I like to imagine that there’s more love - well, no, I’m sure of that - between them.

General:

A Scandal in Belgravia has shown how Sherlock is Mycroft’s only soft spot, really, (Irene’s comment, “Your biggest security leak is your own little brother”) and that his first and foremost instinct is to protect his baby brother. Except Sherlock doesn’t want big brother always looking over his shoulder and fixing everything so there’s resentment. Which is why Mycroft has to find more underhanded ways of looking after him, which in the world of crazy Holmes geniuses translates into CCTV supervision and flatmate kidnappings.
There’s a “Mycroft’ll deal with it” expectation in Sherlock. The strange double standard that little brothers and sisters have: they just want to be free on the one hand but on the other want or need big bro to step in and make it all go away. Go away, I don’t need you, pssh I can do it myself, fuck off, wait what no, why aren’t you doing this for me?
In The Great Game, right after this scene, it’s just so interesting that Mycroft comes to visit, personally, to make Sherlock take on a case that he doesn’t even really care about (he didn’t cancel his dental appointment, I imagine he knew exactly what happened even before he tried to put it off on Sherlock). Conclusion: just like John, Mycroft saw what’d happened on the news and basically rushed to Baker Street to make sure lil bro was okay. But of course he’d need a pretense to come over.
Sherlock is the only person Mycroft has ever fun with. Sherlock has his cases to have fun with and Mycroft’s playing field is the government and all, but pissing off Sherlock is Mycroft’s favourite hobby. So when that gets taken away, Mycroft would be a very smart, but ultimately very sad little panda. Just think of that shot in A Scandal in Belgravia with Mycroft sitting alone in front of his fireplace and staring into his drink on Christmas. Lonely little panda.

Presents:

Every single year, Mycroft has given Sherlock the most wonderful birthday present ever which Sherlock loved loved loved as a kid and resented in his teens and didn’t care for in his drug-hazed depressed twenties because what day is it? can’t get up and slowly started to secretly re-learn how to love and appreciate in his thirties. Because giving someone an awesome present is totally proof of look you matter to me, stupid.
In his teens, Sherlock got all look fuck off with your fucking perfect self and your perfect fucking presents or whatever i don’t want anything from you or this family leave me alooooone and just resented the notion that to be socially acceptable he had to give something back. Maybe it also grated on him how Mummy tried to make him be nice to Mycroft, all look, darling, why don’t you try to… and the worst thing would be that Sherlock actually liked the presents because they were awesome which secretly suggests that his brother is awesome but he isn’t okay, the bastard went away for uni and to “do important things” and rule the world and be dreadfully boring, letting Sherlock to rot. Like any present could make up for that.
With the presents, they turn it into their first deduction game or competition, like oh yeah well I’m going to deduce what you want most for Christmas and then they beat each other up Christmas morning and Mummy’s like “Sherlock dear didn’t you like your present?” “Yes, it was perfect.” “So why -” “Because, Mum.”

Childhood:

The only person who could understand Sherlock was Mycroft and vice versa and for that to be taken away (when Mycroft leaves for university, boarding school or both) would be the beginning of all the hurt feels and resentments because since Mycroft is so much older than Sherlock, Sherlock would have felt it keenly being, say, seven, and Mycroft fourteen, or ten and seventeen.
Mycroft was always cleaning up after Sherlock and he didn’t mind all that much because Sherlock was a mess but he hated it because it put Mummy in such a state. So he would pick up Sherlock’s toys - goddamn wooden sword and taxidermied parrot - and put them in Sherlock’s bed - yes in - and he’d tuck all the sheets back in afterwards and gloat for all of two seconds because at night Sherlock would just throw those toys back on the floor and never learn and then Mycroft would step on the parrot’s beak in the middle of the night and that shit hurt.
Especially in younger years Sherlock wouldn’t understand why he can’t be with his mummy and hang out okay and I want Mummy to do it - even geniuses want their Mummy - and Mycroft would always be like no you little gnome you know Mummy needs her rest and can’t play with you now and Sherlock would be like qhjgsh *hits* i hate you *runs away* but in the evening he would crawl into Mycroft’s bed and in a small voice ask him to read him a story and Mycroft would be like le sigh, c’mon then you little pirate *pets unruly mop of hair gently*.
Mycroft’s first bloody nose ever was when he punched out a fellow classmate for making fun of Sherlock and letting all of Sherlock’s tiny little classmates join in, ostracizing him in the yard, and when he got home Mummy was so annoyed with him for ruining his shirt and tie but he never told her why.

Mummy and Daddy Holmes:

Mummy Holmes was a very depressed woman at times, so Mycroft had to grow up very quickly and take care of Sherlock more often than not
and sometimes it was the best fun because d’aw baby brothers (even Sherlock, the little terror) but other times it made Mycroft just so frustraged because jerhddfk he had things that needed doing okay and he’d like to be on his own sometimes, yes, but it’s not like there’s much peace to be had with Sherlock demanding all his attention all the time and Mummy needing her rest and Daddy Holmes being nonexistent.
Mummy said Daddy Dearest died in the war - some war, a war, somewhere - but both boys deduced quite rightly that he’d run off with their nanny when they were small but by unspoken agreement they didn’t tell mummy that they knew, just let her lock herself up in her room with her “headaches” whenever something reminded her of Daddy. One day they took out all the things still left of their father and buried them in the yard. If Mummy noticed, she never said anything.
Does Mummy ever get help? Does she get rage-y (slightly dilusional) phases? I like the thought of her being or having been an artist. <aybe a dancer? A ballerina?
Mummy used to be a ballerina when she was young - that’s how she met father actually, he in the audience, her on stage, love at first sight from across the stage lights. When she had the boys she took to lessons but their house was far in the country and the classes were in town, too far for a woman who could barely make it into the kitchen to feed her youngest without her first born pestering her about it and in the end she just let them go like so many other things when her husband left her. But sometimes she still liked to dance - gently in her slippers, sometimes with one of the boys - and Sherlock took to playing the violin more often because of that, even though at first he’d declared he hated the instrument but he never quit his lessons or practicing because it made Mummy dance.
After Daddy Holmes betrays her her depression gets worse because the bastard! And she even took his name!
Daddy Holmes couldn’t cope, didn’t like that Mycroft was so sharp and Sherlock the wee babe was so precocious and his wife was slowly closing in on herself. The nanny was just so much simpler…

The Falling Out:

The falling out was due to Sherlock’s drug addiction. It’s just such a horrible and difficult decision to make when you see that your kid (or your sibling, in that case) is obviously destroying himself and doesn’t want or need any help. So the decision Mycroft would have to make would ultimately either end up with Sherlock destroying his health and his brilliant mind or with Sherlock going to rehab and hating Mycroft for forcing him to do so.
When Mycroft first found out, he tried to talk Sherlock out of it, which was obviously dismissed by Sherlock, but then things got nasty and the abuse continued. Then Sherlock landed in hospital maybe because of a seizure (or other drug-abuse effect, in any case something bad happens). This is the last straw for Mycroft, who basically forces Sherlock into a remote, annoyingly idyllic clinc in the country somewhere and then proceeds to control every step Sherlock makes when he finally gets out so that he stays clean. This results in resentment and disgust and bitterness on Sherlock’s part because it’s his life and these are his decisions and fuck you get out of my life.
When Sherlock and Mycroft are mellowed out a bit with being older and wiser and all, Sherlock goes all, “I never thanked you.” “Whatever do you mean, dear brother?” “Oh you very well know.” *scoffs, slurps tea or kicks mycroft’s umbrella* Mycroft’s llike *conflicted feelings but pokerface* but he’s actually moved, which of course translates into: *hits Sherlock in the shin with his umbrella* And John’s like, *shakes head* *smiles indulgently* because how is it possible that these two are geniuses. Then John and Sherlock totally stay together forever as asexual-heterosexual life partners.
Getting off the drug would be so terrible, like vomiting and shaking and crying and hating Mycroft for doing this to him and that he would ever be so undignified.
Mycroft would bring him puzzles to cheer him up, which Sherlock would ignore and decline but secretly solve after Mycroft’s gone, even though he would still hate himself for letting himself be manipulated and despise Mycroft for his attempts at manipulation, resulting in an overall clusterfuck of creys and hate but at least Mycroft didn’t tell Mummy which would’ve been the last straw.
Sherlock’s hands were shaking hard, almost too hard to hold the Rubrik’s cube, and they were weak but he kept at it, turning and flipping the sides until his fingers were raw, the colours swimming in his vision. It was only hours later that he realized he had meant to solve the puzzle but somehow he had forgotten, had forgotten even where he got the toy, why would a drug rehab have one - ah, Mycroft. His brother must have. Ah, yes. Sherlock’s hands still shook but their movements were firm, the colors separated into neat panels and sides and the puzzle was solved.

Reichenbach:

What really makes the Reichenbach Fall so tragic - I mean, yeah obviously Sherlock and John and the creys and the pain, but then there’s Mycroft who has inadvertently contributed to causing Sherlock lots of pain and helping destroy his reputation…
Mycroft tried to play Moriarty’s game and win but sometimes you lose and he didn’t know he was gambling for Sherlock’s life until it was too late. Sherlock might actually be okay with Mycroft failing because, well, Mycroft hasn’t had anyone to set his wits against apart from Sherlock in ages and it’s like chess: no matter how good, sometimes you need to sacrifice a piece to get the queen (honey you should see me in a crown).
Mycroft has inadvertently contributed to causing Sherlock lots of pain and helping destroy his reputation. Even if he knows Sherlock’s alive and is helping him, he destroyed his brother’s whole purpose of being. His heart, he burned it right out.
[On why there was no mention of Richard Brook’s death in the news spot posted on John’s blog] I’m convinced Mycroft’s either helped Sherlock fake his death or that he knows what happened anyway, but I can’t think of any reason right now why he would order a clean-up. A muder-suicide or double-suicide closes the Sherlock case nicely, but if Richard Brook is alive he’s going to be bombarded with interviews so why is no one wondering where he is? So I’m going with Sebastian Moran for the clean-up, who - upon seeing what’s happened - swears vengeance!!

Post-Reichenbach:

Sherlock’s all back and he’s been sufficiently punched, shunned, yelled at and hugged, and they’re back on their first or second case together when John just says something like Well this is almost relaxing now that I don’t have to juggle running after you and getting kidnapped by Mycroft and Sherlock is like Hold the fuck up he hasn’t been kidnapping you? Then he realizes that Mycroft hasn’t been annoying him either, trying to put him on annoying (secretely-awesome) cases and generally control Sherlock’s life. Then Sherlock makes it his mission to annoy the crap out of Mycroft and ruin everything for him. Except secretly that would be just Sherlock trying to get him out his shell and realizing that Mycroft feels guilty and that there’s something missing in Sherlock’s life if big brother’s not there to meddle and be occasionally annoying and infuriatingly as smart as Sherlock.
Sherlock is confronted by John regarding Mycroft’s hand in the fall - but how can you forgive him? He’s fucked up phenomenally. He should’ve known, the bastard - and he is dismissive (maybe? there are several possibilites) because Sherlock would have done the same in Mycroft’s position. Because to get at Moriarty just seemed so much more important than anything else. And because Moriarty started to really screw with things, Mycroft got distracted for a bit and *gasp* made the worst mistake possible, namely: failing his little brother, which I imagine is the worst kind of fail there is for someone like Mycroft, I think. So Sherlock would be dismissive of that (mostly? outwardly? because Moriarty almost out-clevered Sherlock too and maybe in ways that counted, he really did) but Mycroft wouldn’t forgive himself so easily.